Friday, February 28, 2014

iPractice Math is a new (beta) site that is ideal for all things Math. This is a great one-stop place to find online help such as: definitions, Math problem walk-thrus, worksheets, and more. Best of all a user can search by subject (addition, fractions, algebra, etc) or grade level to find what they are looking for, and through an educational portal educators can get instant real-time reports on how their students are doing.

If is a very cool and fun free iPad game for SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) that I downloaded the other day for my kids. This game takes place in an animated 3D world (Ziggurat) and allows users to make decisions that effect the outcome of the game. I had a great time playing through game, creating my animal avatar, and making different decisions when interacting w/ other characters. This game like Quandary, does a great job of helping students choose from right or wrong decisions and what is the appropriate way to interact w/ others.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Level it Books is the widely popular iOS app for scanning a books ISBN (bar code) and getting a Reading Level. This simple to use mobile app allows educators and parents to create a digital library of their students/kids books along w/ Reading Level. Also, a educator can use it to create a digital roster of their students w/ their Reading Level assigned which makes it easier for assessing purposes. Also, a user can add or manually search for a book and find a well liked K-8 "book of the day".

Tocomail is an excellent site/iOS app for providing a safe email environment for children. The way this works is a child gets a free email account w/ safe/approved contacts from a guardian. Kids can then customize an avatar for their email account and even create drawings/paintings for email attachments. Parents can setup and approve a contact lists, receive quarantined emails waiting for approval, reject or approval any email, etc. Best of all, there is a content filter which quarantine the email it has any profanity and parents will be alerted if any bullying patterns are detected.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

DimensionU is a wonderful site/company that creates educational games aligned to Common Core Standards for Math & Literacy. These games take plays in a 3D multiplayer virtual world and are designed for grades 3rd-8th.

Below are some of their innovative games....

Meltdown is the DimensionU game that offers students
a second chance when answering difficult questions, and rewards
creative strategies to achieve victory.

Swarm is DimensionU's team-based game that most strongly
reinforces cooperation and collaboration between students to
achieve a common goal.

Towerstorm is the DimensionU game that is best for working
through the most curriculum in the shortest amount of time.

Velocity is DimensionU's high-speed obstacle course that
ensures players answer questions correctly in order to continue
progressing through the race.

BoomWriter is a site/company I've worked w/ before has just released a number of lesson plans to help educators integrate BW into their curriculum. For those that don't know what BoomWriter is, it's a fascinating innovative educational tool that educators are using around the world to turn their students into published authors. This is all done in a safe environment built around an educational portal where teachers create and manage the student accounts.

The process to create a book is collaborative in nature and quite simple: a story starter is selected (or created from scratch) and each student takes place in writing the next chapter to follow, then anonymously the students read and choose which chapter they like best to include, and the process continues until the story/book is finished. Upon completing the project an actual physical book can be ordered. BoomWriter offers new teachers a free class copy of their first finished product and they also have a Technology Heroes program where every student can get their own published copy, for more info on that click here.

As to the BW lesson plans they are all aligned to Common Core Standards, developed by teachers, and are ideal for students grade 3 on up.

If you teach...

English Language Arts

Special Education

ELL

Gifted & Talented/Challenge Curriculum

Before or After School Programs

…then these lessons are sure to provide your students with a highly engaging and academically effective 21st century learning experience!

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

9Slides is a excellent site/app (Android/iOS) for taking a presentation and then adding a video narration. This is a ideal for the Flipped Classroom model and for Guided Instruction. It's a very user friendly tool and supports all sorts of video (i.e. Keynote, PPT) formats for upload. Finally, a finished presentation can then be shared via a URL or embedded into a site or blog.

Stick Around is a fantastic iPad app by educator Tony Vincent that is for creating puzzles and then having students label them. For example, an educator can create a diagram/puzzle of a cell using Stick Around, and then have students label the different parts. It can be used for any subject and can be used to flip instruction w/ the ability to record narration. Also, educators can share their different puzzles/templates and find new ones online all the time.

Jack and the Beanstalk: A Mathematical Adventure is one of my favorite iOS games from the creator of MathFileFolderGames. This is an excellent and super fun game for kids working a basic Math skills, such as: counting money, adding, telling time, and more. Also, a user can switch the Math problem if they are getting stuck which and the narrated adventure makes for high replay value.

I highly recommend checking out Jack and the Beanstalk by clicking here!!!

*MathFileFolderGames is an advertiser of Technology Tidbits.

Below is a list of other great games from MathFileFolderGames or click here....

5 Dice: Order of Operations Game

4 Dice: Fraction Games

(Cost: $1.99)4 Dice: Fraction Games is a math app for middle school and upper elementary students. The goal of the game is to present fractions in a way that is both conducive to learning and fun. Read More Here

Ordered Fractions: Comparing & Ordering Fractions

(Cost: $1.99)

Ordered Fractionsgame begins by pressing the button that rolls the dice. Students then insert these numbers into the boxes on the board, which creates the fractions. Students then position the fractions in ascending order by comparing fractions. Read more here

Grid Lines: Ordered Pair Game

(Cost: $1.99)

Grid Lines is a Battleship-style math app used to teach students the coordinate plane. Students will get practice plotting points on a coordinate plane by playing a game similar to Battleship. Read more here

Tangram Chess: Transformation Games

(Cost: $1.99)

Tangram Chess For Kids, Translations (slides), Rotations (turns) and Reflections (flips). Every game of Tangram Chess has its own story. Some are long-drawn out strategic affairs; others can be quick, but complicated, tactical battles. The winner is the player who can out-think his or her opponent, and make the best plans for attack and defence. Read more here

QuizOperator is a nice free site/app for creating a quiz to be shared w/ a audience. It's a very easy tool to use and all a user has to do is fill out a template w/ questions and answers and then share a link for others to join. Once the "players" having joined the quiz/game can begin and all scores are tracked in real-time. This is a fun way to engage an audience or assess a wide range of students.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Biteslide is a wonderful web tool w/ educational portal that teachers are using to create beautiful looking slidebooks/presentations. This is all done through a very easy to use drag-n-drop interface and web browser plugin (a.k.a "Nibbler") for adding images, clipart, text and more. Educators are using this for Project Based Learning, creating dynamic digital stories/scrapbooks, and even "flipping their classroom. Best of all, the educational portal allows educators to create and monitor student accounts and projects.
I highly recommend checking out Biteslide by clicking here!!!!

RoomRecess is one of my all time favorite sites for finding a wide variety of educational online games. This is a great place for finding games in subjects such as: Math, Reading, Keyboarding, and more. These games are designed for students K-5 and are easy to play w/ high replay value. Educators can find lots of useful free games that will help reinforce skills (i.e. Typing, Spelling, Basic Math Skills)

Door 24 is a wonderful free iPad app for working on basic Math skills. This educational game has students trying to solve different equations to help repair a robot's circuits and solve the mystery behind Door 24. Door 24 is aligned to Common Core standards, designed for grade 4-8th, and has over 6 different levels that focus on different computational fluency. Best of all is a Math review screen that helps students w/ problems they are struggling on.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Buncee is one of my favorite Web 2.0 tools for creating engaging presentations. This is an excellent learning tools that educators can use to "flip their classroom" or guide instruction on any subject. Students love using Buncee for a wide variety of purposes such as: digital storytelling, creating posters, and more. It's a very simple site to use that has users adding clipart, video, text, etc to create a dynamic and interactive presentation. Best of all, is the educational portal that allows teachers to create student accounts and manage/assess all student presentations in a safe environment. Finally, a Buncee can be embedded into a site/blog which makes it ideal for sharing w/ a wide audience.

Book Writer is a excellent iOS app that educators are using everywhere for digital storytelling and flipping their classroom instruction. This is a simple app to use that can be used by any subject for any curriculum that allows users to create a multimedia digital book that can then be published to iBooks or printed out as a PDF. Best of all, a student can record their own narration to help tell a story, or an educator to help teach a lesson.

Friday, February 21, 2014

EDpuzzle one of the best and most popular sites around for creating a "flipped" classroom has just released a free Android app on the Google Chrome Store. This is a fantastic site/app for taking a video, editing/cropping it, and then adding questions to it. This is ideal for Guided Learning and Flipping instruction. Also, a user can upload any of their own videos to turn into their "own" or even record their own audio over it for narration purposes.

GuidedVideo is a excellent iPad app that is free right now (normally $30) for creating video lessons for students. This is done by recording yourself asking a question and then use your own photos as buttons for the answers to the questions. For example, if you were asking a student what shape is a rectangle or tap the correct month, all the answers (up to 12) would be either different shapes or the different months, where they tap the correct one. This can work for any subject or curriculum and great for Guided Learning and assessing students.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

FluencyFinder the popular iOS app for Reading Assessment/Comprehension has just gotten better w/ their recent update. The latest update allows for educators to now search through the 1st-8th Grade Reading passages, bigger buttons on the assessing screen, easier exporting features to share assessment/comprehension reports via email, and a new sleeker redesigned look for iOS 7. To update FluencyFinder's data is simple, just update the app, and tap the migrate button which will transfer over all students and assessment data.

FluencyFinder has been getting lots of praise from educators all over the world on how easy it is to assess a student's Reading/Comprehension level. All a teacher has to do is find a Reading passage on FF's website and print out which one they want to test their student on. Then it's just a tap o
f a button to start timing as the student reads while the teacher taps (+) or (-) as they make or correct mistakes. When the student is done reading, the teacher stops the time (or choose to move on to Comprehension questions) and gets instant real-time results.

"I just assessed my entire 4th grade class in half the time it usually takes.....it was so nice to not watch my stopwatch and finally be able to focus more effectively on the student's reading. My scores are right at my fingertips and I will be able to track them throughout the year. A true time saver with accurate and trackable results!! A MUST HAVE for all teachers!"– iTunes App Store Review, 5-Star rating

"As a lifelong advocate for a parent's role in their child's education and success, I very much appreciate this app. It gives parents a great tool for helping their child at home while supporting the role of the teacher at the same time. Thank you so much! Parents will find this very helpful!"– iTunes App Store Review, 5-Star rating*FluencyFinder is an advertiser of Technology Tidbits.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Hideout: Early Reading is a wonderful free iOS app for young readers to help them w/ their Reading skills. This is done through a series of educational activities/games that has students trying to sound out words, find the correct letter, word recognition, and more. Also, this game features a wide variety of things that engage young learners, such as animations, music, and more.

I highly recommend checking out Hideout: Early Reading by clicking here!!

Monday, February 17, 2014

Little Story Creator is a wonderful new iOS app for creating digital scrapbooks or storytelling. As w/ similar apps a user can add text, images/stickers, backgrounds, and even import video into their project. Best of all, a user can record audio to narrate a story. A finished project can then be shared via email or viewed on the web. This can even be used for guided instruction or filliping a classroom.

I highly recommend checking out Little Story Creator by clicking here!!!

Friday, February 14, 2014

OpenEd is a fantastic site for educators to create an online course and assign a wide variety of educational resources for students to view. These resources can include: videos, links, sites, and more from such resources as PBS, EdCite, BrainGenie, etc. Recently, they released a free Android/iOS app that works in conjunction w/ their website that allows students to join a course via a unique login code on their mobile devices. Anyone familiar w/ Nettrekker will feel right at home w/ the user interface as can view their classes, resources (rated on a star scale), standard, grade level, etc.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Quiz Dungeon is a wonderful iOS game that combines elements of RPG to help students learn basic Math skills. Anyone familiar w/ the classic arcade game Gauntlet will feel right at home playing this simple yet fun game as they try to defeat enemies such as slimes and knights while unlocking treasure chests. As w/ any classic RPG as the user gets better at the game they earn XP and gold to level up and purchase items in a "gift shop". This makes for a entertaining adventure and high replay value. Best of all, QD allows for multiple user accounts which is ideal for those that share an account, and a parent can even set what type of questions are asked (i.e. multiplication, addition, etc.).

Slice Fractions is a wonderful educational iOS app for learning the basics of Fractions. This app has students slicing through objects to make the corresponding fraction. Also, there are lots of goal orientated actions to solve to make the fraction, such as freeing a mammal from ice or lava. Finally, Slice Fractions is aligned to Common Core Standards and has high replay value as users try to unlock all the special hats (fun stuff) for their mammal to wear.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

30hands Learning is a company I've blogged about many times for their spectacular free mobile iOS app for digital storytelling/presentations... However, they also have a fantastic LMS (Learning Management System) that is an online community for educators and students. This site "houses" all of the online activity students and creates an e-Classroom for students.

Educators can use this space to publish (public/private) to create courses, share lessons, assess/grade student projects, and more. Best of all this educational portal allows for teachers to create and manage student accounts and share courses via a unique URL and login code. This is a great way for educators to monitor student work, garner student feedback, and facilitate collaboration.

30hands the free mobile app has recently released a big update which allows users to easily upload a presentation to the "30hands cloud" via a tab/button. This is a great for Guided or Fli
pped Learning as a teacher can upload a project/template and then have a student work on it at home.

I highly recommend checking out the 30hands Community by clicking here!!!
For the free iOS app click here!!!

Monday, February 10, 2014

Zeus vs. Monsters is a fun Android app for practicing basic Math skills (addition, subtraction, division, etc). It has users trying to defeat mythical enemies (i.e. Medusa, Cyclops) by trying to solve equations. Best of all is the high replay value of the game w/ over 50 levels and 10 bosses to try to defeat. Also, the game has a detailed report feature that shows exactly how well a student did and which problems they got wrong.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

A while back I created a list of top 10 sites for creating timelines. Well, since that time mobile learning has really integrated into education and apps have been developed to accomplish this task. I've created a new list combined w/ apps & sites that are ideal for creating timelines.

*Definition - "A timeline is a way of displaying a list of events in chronological order, sometimes described as a project artifact. It is typically a graphic design showing a long bar labelled with dates alongside itself and (usually) events labelled on points where they would have happened. Timelines are often used in education to help students and researchers with understanding the order or chronology of historical events and trends for a subject. When showing time on a specific scale on an axis, a timeline can be used to visualize time lapses between events, durations (such as a lifetimes or wars), and the simultaneity or overlap of spans and events. (Wikipedia)"

*This list is in alphabetical order.

Top 20 Sites/Apps for Creating Timelines

American History Timeline - A excellent iPad for viewing America's history. Also, there are interactive educational games to reinforce student learning.

Capzles - Is one of the most popular sites around for creating interactive timelines. These timelines can contain all kinds of media (images, video, etc) as well as be embedded into a site/blog.

Dipity - A fun site for creating embeddable interactive timelines that include images and videos.

littleBIG History - A terrific iPad app for viewing timelines from the creation of the universe to current events. This app contains over 700 images and 1300 events that can be searched through.

OurTimeLines - A neat site w/ templates for creating timelines through text.

Preceden - A cool site for creating layered interactive timelines. These timelines can be set to public or private and even be embedded into a site or blog.

RWT Timeline - Based on their website's (ReadWriteThink) timeline creator, RWT is one of my favorite iPad apps (free) for creating stunning timelines. Also, the app allows for multiple users which is ideal for those schools that share devices.

Tiki-Toki - A wonderful site for creating beautiful looking 3D timelines w/ images and videos. A paid account lets users embed them on a site and collaborate on them w/ multiple users.

Time Rime - A great site for creating interactive timelines w/ educational portal.

Timeglider - One of my favorite sites around for creating interactive timelines that can be embedded into a site. Also, a user can generate a legend/key to help navigate their timeline.

Friday, February 7, 2014

Piig Labs is a new free (for today) iPad app that is ideal for teaching young kids about different Scientific experiment. Right now, the interactive animated app offers 6 different experiments (w/ more on the way) such as volcano (mixing baking soda/vinger), build a lightbulb, put together a radio, and more. This is a very user-friendly app and covers a wide range of Science themes from electricity to chemical reactions.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

YuJa is a new site that is ideal for upper education (HS/College) for educators to "house" their classroom content in a safe environment. Basically, YuJa is a LMS (learning management system) where teachers can host real-time discussions, poll students, send out text messages, and best of all send out video broadcasts on any topic. This is ideal for the flipped classroom model where learning takes place outside the classroom.

Tackk is a excellent site that reminds me a lot of Glogster or Smore for creating stunning presentations. This is a very user-friendly site that allows users to create a static page for free by simply just typing and adding types of content (video, audio, images, links, etc.) I recommend registering as a user otherwise a "Tackk" will delete after 7 days. Best of all, a finished project can be shared via a unique URL or embedded into a site/blog.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

MarcoPolo Ocean is a wonderful iPad app for young learners wanting to learn and build their own ocean. This interactive narrated app covers 5 ocean concepts such as: coral reef, marine mammals, fish, boat, and submarine. MP Ocean is a very user-friendly app that has kids drag
ging and dropping pieces of a puzzle to create an animated object (i.e. fish, boat, etc), control a submarine through an ocean, feeding fish, and other engaging activities.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

PlayCornerTV is a wonderful mobile (iOS/Android) app that filters YouTube videos so only educational videos show up. This is a great way to eliminate all inappropriate content that can be found on YouTube as well as give a visual interface for kids who are to young or have trouble reading. Different videos that come up are: animals, characters, and educational concepts such as, Math, Shapes, Alphabet, etc. Also, there are Parental Controls that allows them to block or control what videos a student/child can see.

Monday, February 3, 2014

Champs of Numeria is an excellent mobile (Android/iOS) Math for practicing basic Math (i.e. division, addition, etc.) skills. This multi-player app has students ages 4 on up competing against one another (or computer) to solve equations on a board full of numbers trying to "Connect Four". Finally, there are up to 9 different characters to select from and 3 different difficulty levels to master.

Learningpod is a new site that I just learned about from Richard Byrne's excellent blog. This is a great site for finding educational questions on any number of subjects. Students can use this to prepare for a test and even search by test type (ACT, SAT, etc). Best of all, the questions all come w/ explanation to the multiple choice answers.

Drawp for School is an excellent free iPad app for creating digital art. This app has an easy to use interface that allows students draw, paint, color, etc to creating stunning pieces of art. Best of all is the educational portal that allows educators to create/manage student accounts as well as the ability for students to "hand-in" assignments via the cloud. This is a fantastic app to use for any subject or curriculum.

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David Kapuler

I have been working w/ technology and education for over 14 years in a school setting. I'm looking for work in a K-12 environment as a Technology Integration/Support Specialist in WI/IL. Contact email - dkapuler@gmail.com
I'm currently looking to get my Mac OS/Repair Certification, as well as a Masters in Technology Integration.
Also, I have a solid background in web design, w/ network/server support.
On a personal note, I';m a proud father of 3 boys and 1 girl, and have been married for 10 years.